Aldeneik Abbey (Dutch : Klooster van Aldeneik) is a former Benedictine abbey in Aldeneik, currently a mainly residential parish of Maaseik, in the province of Limburg in eastern Belgium. It was founded in 728. The Benedictine nuns were replaced by canons in the 10th century. In the 16th century the canons moved to nearby Maaseik, and Aldeneik was abandoned.
According to the vita of Harlindis and Relindis (written around 860), these two sisters in 720 founded a monastery along the river Meuse, on territory belonging to their father Adelard. With the support of Willibrord of Utrecht, the abbey was officially established, adhering to the rule of Saint Benedict, and the two sisters became abbesses. The abbey was probably destroyed by Viking raids in the 9th century. A century later it was given to Richer, Bishop of Liège, who in 952 made it a religious chapter with 12 canons. Under the leadership of their abbot they continued to live, work and pray in Aldeneik for more than six centuries.
In 1571, during the wars following the Protestant Reformation, the canons - with their treasure - took refuge in the nearby town of Maaseik. Here, the predecessor of the church of Saint Catherine became the chapter's private church. The canons sold their property in Aldeneik in order to buy houses in Maaseik where they continued to live peacefully for another 240 years. After the arrival of the French revolutionary troops in 1793, the chapter was dissolved in 1797. The church fell into disrepair and was demolished. In 1840-45 the current Neoclassical church was built, but the chapter was never restored.
At the original abbey location in Aldeneik only the heavily-restored former abbey church remains, which still serves as a parish church and is now dedicated to Saint Anne (Church of Saint Anne, Aldeneik). Nothing of the cloisters, nor the later chapter house or canon's houses have been preserved.
The treasure of the abbey, preserved in the church of Saint Catherine in Maaseik, is presented in a small museum located in the crypt of the church. The main treasure is a manuscript of the early 8th century, the Codex Eyckensis , considered to be the oldest book in Belgium. An important collection of medieval textiles consists of a garment said to have belonged to Saint Relindis and Anglo-Saxon liturgical embroidery dating from the 8th or 9th century. Several other relics of the abbey founders, Harlindis and Relindis, have survived in the treasury. Other important pieces in the collection are reliquaries (some dating back to the 9th century), liturgical vessels made of gold and silver, paraments, and ancient manuscripts.
Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew, and formerly known as Peterborough Abbey or St Peter's Abbey, is a cathedral in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. The seat of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, it is dedicated to the Apostles Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and Saint Andrew, whose statues look down from the three high gables of the West Front. Founded in the Anglo-Saxon period as a minster it became one of England's most important Benedictine abbeys, becoming a cathedral only in 1542. Its architecture is mainly Norman, following a rebuilding in the 12th century. Alongside the cathedrals of Durham and Ely, it is one of the most important 12th-century buildings in England to have remained largely intact, despite extensions and restoration, and is one the nations best preserved pre-Reformation abbeys.
Maaseik is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of Limburg. Both in size and in population, it is the 8th largest municipality in Limburg. The town is the seat of the administrative arrondissement of Maaseik (kieskanton). Internationally, Maaseik is known as the assumed birthplace of the famous Flemish painters Jan and Hubert van Eyck.
Martial, called "the Apostle of the Gauls" or "the Apostle of Aquitaine", was the first bishop of Limoges. Venerated as a Christian Saint, his feast day is 30 June.
A cloister is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a warm southern flank, usually indicates that it is part of a monastic foundation, "forming a continuous and solid architectural barrier... that effectively separates the world of the monks from that of the serfs and workmen, whose lives and works went forward outside and around the cloister."
The Irish Gospels of St. Gall or Codex Sangallensis 51 is an 8th-century Insular Gospel Book, written either in Ireland or by Irish monks in the Abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland, where it is now in the Abbey library of St. Gallen as MS 51. It has 134 folios. Amongst its eleven illustrated pages are a Crucifixion, a Last Judgement, a Chi Rho monogram page, a carpet page, and Evangelist portraits.
In the Western Church of the Early and High Middle Ages, a sacramentary was a book used for liturgical services and the mass by a bishop or priest. Sacramentaries include only the words spoken or sung by him, unlike the missals of later centuries that include all the texts of the mass whether read by the bishop, priest, or others. Also, sacramentaries, unlike missals, include texts for services other than the mass such as ordinations, the consecration of a church or altar, exorcisms, and blessings, all of which were later included in Pontificals and Rituals instead.
Lorsch Abbey, otherwise the Imperial Abbey of Lorsch, is a former Imperial abbey in Lorsch, Germany, about 10 km (6.2 mi) east of Worms. It was one of the most important monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Even in its ruined state, its remains are among the most important pre-Romanesque–Carolingian style buildings in Germany.
Saint Herlindis, sister of Saint Relindis, was a Frankish saint and abbess.
Saint Relindis, sister of Saint Herlindis, was the daughter of count Adelard. The sisters were brought up at the Benedictine monastery in Valenciennes. Adelard and his wife later built a monastery at Maaseik for their daughters. The Abbey of Aldeneik was consecrated in 728.
The Abbey of Saint-Victor is a former abbey that was founded during the late Roman period in Marseille in the south of France, named after the local soldier saint and martyr, Victor of Marseilles.
The Evangeliary or Book of the Gospels is a liturgical book containing only those portions of the four gospels which are read during Mass or in other public offices of the Church. The corresponding terms in Latin are Evangeliarium and Liber evangeliorum.
The Basilica of Saint Servatius is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Servatius, in the center of Maastricht, Netherlands. The architecturally hybrid but mainly Romanesque church is situated next to the Gothic Church of Saint John, backing onto the town's main square, Vrijthof.
Munsterbilzen Abbey was an abbey of Benedictine nuns in Munsterbilzen, Limburg, Belgium, founded in around 670 by Saint Landrada. It was plundered by Vikings in 881 but restored. From the 9th century it was dedicated to Saint Amor.
Aldeneik, founded in 730, is a suburb of the Belgian town of Maaseik. It lies on the left bank of the river Meuse, close to the border with the Netherlands, close to where the Bosbeek runs off it. According to legend it sprung up around a monastery set up by the Frankish sisters Herlindis and Relindis, who wrote the Gospel book known as the Codex Eyckensis, still in Maaseik. The settlement contains the Romanesque and Gothic Sint-Annakerk.
The Church of Saint Anne is a partly Romanesque, partly Gothic church in Aldeneik, Belgium.
The eighth-century Codex Eyckensis is a Gospel Book based on two constituent manuscripts that were bound as a single codex from (presumably) the twelfth century until 1988. The Codex Eyckensis is the oldest book in Belgium. Since the eighth century it has been kept and preserved on the territory of the present-day municipality of Maaseik, in Belgium. The book was probably produced in the scriptorium in the Abbey of Echternach. It is housed in the church of St Catherine in Maaseik.
The Basilica of Our Lady is a Romanesque church in the historic center of Maastricht, Netherlands. The church is dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption and is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Diocese of Roermond. The church is often referred to as the Star of the Sea, after the church's main devotion, Our Lady, Star of the Sea.
The Treasury of the Basilica of Saint Servatius is a museum of religious art and artifacts inside the Basilica of Saint Servatius in Maastricht, Netherlands.
The Trier Cathedral Treasury is a museum of Christian art and medieval art in Trier, Germany. The museum is owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier and is located inside the Cathedral of Trier. It contains some of the church's most valuable relics, reliquaries, liturgical vessels, ivories, manuscripts and other artistic objects. The history of the Trier church treasure goes back at least 800 years. In spite of heavy losses during the period of the Coalition Wars, it is one of the richest cathedral treasuries in Germany. With the cathedral it forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
House-shaped shrine are early medieval portable metal reliquary formed in the shape of the roof of a rectangular building. They originate from both Ireland and Scotland and mostly date from the 8th or 9th centuries. Typical example consist of a wooden core covered with silver and copper alloy plates, and were built to hold relics of saints or martyrs from the early Church era; a number held corporeal remains when found in the modern period, presumably they were parts of the saint's body. Others, including the Breac Maodhóg, held manuscripts associated with the commemorated saint. Like many Insular shrines, they were heavily reworked and embellished in the centuries following their initial construction, often with metal adornments or figures influenced by Romanesque sculpture.